The company will begin producing the Model Y in November next year at its plant in Fremont, California.
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stated that work is ongoing and kinks in the process are being ironed out. He also added that the company wants to be able to produce 5,000 cars per week, or 2,60,000 a year. It also intends to first clear the backlogs before it introduces the Model Y.
Built on the same platform as the Model 3, the Model Y will be a small SUV, and will be fitted with a much more advanced supercomputer than current Tesla models. It is also expected to have a better version of Tesla's current Autopilot technology. Once the company introduces the Model Y, it wants to launch a pick-up truck, a cargo van and a minibus, all of which are based on the Model X SUV platform.
The company also wants to launch a car-sharing platform to better utilise passenger-carrying potential in cars, which sit idle at owners houses when they’re not using them. When self-driving cars are approved by regulators, they could be summoned from anywhere.
“Since most cars are only in use by their owners for 5 to 10 percent of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not,” said Musk.